I don't know which way my cpu fan is supposed to be facing I'm new to the PC world and I need help its already installed and I

[PCNOOB26]

I don't know which way my cpu fan is supposed to face please help

 

[tech-wreck]

I'm guessing it's not the stock fan, yes?
it should blow through the heatsink towards the rear of your case.

 

[PCNOOB26]

How do I post a picture?

 

[tech-wreck]

upload the picture to http://postimage.org, copy the forum code, paste into a message here.

 

[PCNOOB26]

http://postimg.org/image/4amonejnr/

 

[tech-wreck]

almost there. you need to rotate the cooler 90 degrees clockwise so the heat goes straight out, rather than straight onto the GPU, which gets warm enough by itself.

 

[PCNOOB26]

Isn't there any other way?

 

[PCNOOB26]

I'm sorry if I'm being stubborn it's just I don't want to damage anything when removing it again

 

[boju]

Didnt know what i was looking at until i cocked my head lol, oohh you took the picture that way haha.

Does your case have top fans? Hope it does.

It's acceptable to have the CPU fan orientating upwards if there are case exhaust fans there.

Other standard setup most people follow is directing the CPU fan towards the back.

I hope you have fans at the top, can't see if there are, just so you don't need to move the heatsink again and upset the thermal paste.

Generally the better cooling setup is you have a fan pushing the air through and another behind pulling. So ideally the way the heatsink is you'd have the fan under the heatsink pushing air up. Then the top case fan (if any) to pull the air. Same concept if the heatsink/fan was directing to the back. Let the case fan pull, the CPU heatsink push air through the sink/opposite side of it. <-- [Case fan] <-- Heatsink <-- [CPU fan] <--Air.

 

[tech-wreck]

does the heatsink clash with the GPU?
if your case has vents on the top, you could rotate it 180 degrees so it blows upwards and out.

just double checking, the fan does push air through the heatsink? if it's pulling air upwards, leave it like that.

 

[PCNOOB26]

Yeah sorry about that, I don't have top fans unfortunately but if I did then hot air would go to the graphics card right?

 

[boju]

You are right tech, there will be little room if any -might get away with it. Still need to contend with the heat from the GPU. But its either that or take it apart and change it round like tech-wreck said.

There should be an arrow on the side of the fan, which ever way the arrow is pointing is where the air will go.

 

[boju]

Yeah sorry about that, I don't have top fans unfortunately but if I did then hot air would go to the graphics card right?

being where the heatsink is and no top case fans, the poor ah heck will be trying hard to suck but no assist from any fan. The air flow will zip right past the heatsink and your cpu will no doubt be very warm.

 

[PCNOOB26]

Would the side fan interrupt the air flow?

 

[PCNOOB26]

Would it be critical?

 

[tech-wreck]

side, as in side panel? that would probably help, but it's still not ideal.

also if there is space behind the other side panel, try and route the wiring back there out of the airflow.

 

[PCNOOB26]

I mean the back fan sorry about that

 

[tech-wreck]

if the CPU fan is blowing upwards, the rear fan will remove most of the hot air.
if it is blowing straight down onto the GPU, it will heat it up before the rear fan can exhaust it, which isn't so good.

 

[boju]

Will need to move it PCNOOB26. The air flow is just not going to keep up with the amount of heat dumped into the case from the CPU and GPU. Also depends where the case will be too, if its in with a cabinet surrounding, you'd want coolest air possible going in.

I know its a hassle but you'll be grateful when its done. I can see from the picture your PC is going to be gaming machine and with that, i would be worried of overheating.

 

[PCNOOB26]

So basically I should take off the fan and put it on the other side of the heat sink?
sorry for asking so many questions I'm just new to this

 

[tech-wreck]

if the motherboard has more than one 16X pci-e slot, you could move the GPU down into that giving you room to turn the heatsink so the fan is blowing toward the rear.

 

[boju]

No, remove the heatsink and turn it around.

Will need to scrape off the grease and apply new, then re-seat the heatsink.

Like this;

 

[PCNOOB26]

The cooler doesn't look like it would be exactly aligned with the back fan if I turned it around

 

[boju]

They generally aren't but the air flow is there.

The idea is to get the air moving and out quickly. The way it is now you're relying to much on case fans and the heat is going to increase.

 

[PCNOOB26]

Do I need a backplate? The cooler came with one but I didn't think I needed it